Jeeves & Wooster Star In PERFECT NONSENSE As Sixth Production Of The 2018-19 Season

Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts today announced that Jeeves & Wooster in "Perfect Nonsense," the Olivier Award-winning comedy from brothers David and Robert Goodale, will make its North American premiere at Hartford Stage during the 2018-19 season. Original director Sean Foley will return to stage the show in Hartford.

"I saw Jeeves & Wooster in 'Perfect Nonsense' shortly after it opened in the West End and fell for it immediately," said Hartford Stage Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Williamson. "Director Sean Foley and the Goodale brothers have crafted a beautifully constructed stage farce that is both true to Wodehouse and completely successful in its own right. I couldn't be happier to be bringing the US premiere here to Hartford."

Jeeves & Wooster in "Perfect Nonsense" will perform at Hartford Stage March 21 through April 14, 2019. A hilarious farce with inventive theatricality, the play was co-written by brothers David and Robert Goodale based upon characters created by British author P.G. Wodehouse. Wodehouse, a prolific writer who was considered to be of one of the most widely-read humorists of the 20th century, often mixed humor with social commentary. Among his many creations - including Blandings Castle, Psmith, Ukridge, and Uncle Fred and Mr. Mulliner - Jeeves and Wooster are two of his most beloved characters.

Inspired in part by Wodehouse's 1938 novel The Code of the Woosters, the Goodale brothers' Jeeves & Wooster in "Perfect Nonsense" is a fast-paced, slapstick comedy which cleverly skewers the Edwardian Upper Class. All goes awry when Bertie Wooster, a wealthy British gentleman with a penchant for telling stories, decides to stage a one-man theatrical show on London's West End. Enter Wooster's loyal valet Jeeves who, sensing disaster, valiantly steps in to help save the day.

Jeeves & Wooster in "Perfect Nonsense" premiered at the West End's Duke of York's Theatre in November 2013 to rave reviews and won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2014. The Daily Mail hailed the play as "an inventive evening of bonkers comedy." The Telegraph raved, "Wodehouse himself would have loved this production."

The Hartford production will be helmed by original director Sean Foley, whose previous work in America includes The Play What I Wrote on Broadway. Foley - a director, writer, comedian and actor - is a West End favorite, helming the West End hits The Ladykillers (which earned him an Olivier Award nomination for best director) and Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw.

Mark Goucher, who had the original idea for the show and produced it in the West End with Mark Rubinstein, said, "After a wonderful season in The West End and an Olivier Award for best new comedy, I am very excited that 'Perfect Nonsense' will open in the US at Hartford Stage. We hope that this show will be as well received by the American audiences as The 39 Steps and The Play That Goes Wrong."

Subscriptions for the six-play mainstage season are currently on sale. Visit https://www.hartfordstage.org/show/subscribe, or call the Hartford Stage Box Office at 860-527-5151. Please note that all titles and artists are subject to change.

Single ticket and group sales for all shows will go on sale to the general public in July. For information on group sale discounts, visit www.hartfordstage.org/group-sales or call (860) 520-7125.

Now in our 54th season, Hartford Stage is under the leadership of Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts. One of the nation's leading resident theatres, Hartford Stage is known for producing innovative revivals of classics and provocative new plays and musicals, including 73 world and American premieres, as well as offering a distinguished education program, which reaches close to 21,000 students annually.

Since Tresnjak's appointment in 2011 the theatre has presented the world premieres of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder on Broadway, winner of four 2014 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical by Tresnjak; Rear Window with Kevin Bacon; the new musical Anastasia by Terrence McNally, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens; Quiara Alegría Hudes' Water by the Spoonful, winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Breath & Imagination by Daniel Beaty; Big Dance Theatre's Man in a Case with Mikhail Baryshnikov; and Reverberation by Matthew Lopez.

Hartford Stage has earned many of the nation's most prestigious awards, including the 1989 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Other national honors include Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, OBIE, and New York Critics Circle awards. Hartford Stage has produced nationally renowned titles, including the New York transfers of Enchanted April; The Orphans' Home Cycle; Resurrection (later retitled Through the Night); The Carpetbagger's Children; and Tea at Five.

The leading provider of theatre education programs in Connecticut, Hartford Stage's offerings include student matinees, in-school theatre residencies, teen performance opportunities, theatre classes for students (ages 3-18) and adults, afterschool programs and professional development courses.

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